


Escape

by RoseBoy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Dark, Desperation, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 12:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12935148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseBoy/pseuds/RoseBoy
Summary: How would you feel if you were forced into a place where in every corner, darkness seeks?





	Escape

**Author's Note:**

> I was deeply moved when I visited the immigration center at Angel Island, and well, this was born. This is only slightly based off of the experiences that Immigrants felt when entering the US through Angel Island during the Gilded Age. Emphasis on "Slightly". So many creative liberties were taken with this poem.
> 
> And it's vague on purpose, so you can interpret it however you want, even without the context given above.

As I enter the gates after the harrowing journey

Never quite certain _which_ heaven will greet me

I feel the rain of freedom kiss my hopeful heart

And I feel that this may be the beginning, a new start

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

The lights glitter and flicker before me, harking

A great euphoria pooling in my chest, sparking

And I hope, I pray, that I will retrieve what I lack

The great wings sprouting, bursting from my back

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

And then the gates close.

 

They close, they slam, they shut behind me

The seven doors close, a warning I took too lightly

And I pass by my kin, torture in their eyes endless

And I’m shoved into a room, a room they said was

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

Suddenly, a man comes running, rushing in

I am immobile, frozen, simply a toy to him

And just as quickly he whirls back out and is gone

Leaving only a bell on my wrist, in the shape of a pawn

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

I learn quickly that my daydreams mean nothing

For I’m thrust into a world where they are hunting

For any move, any mark, any look they don’t like

All they need to hear is the chime, so that they might

See me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

And then the bell rings, and I’m thrown out of my bed

Stripped down, unclothed, from my toes to my head

And I’m no longer human, an animal on display

And he roughly grabs me and burns a number on my skin without delay

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

 

And then the bell rings, and I’m strapped to a chair

Where a shadow looms over me, and I’m forced to despair

As he babbles in a language that I cannot understand

And I quail in my seat as he raises his hand

At me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

 

And then the bell rings, I behold a tight space

Where barely a person could scarcely fit their face

And they clamp in my head, and spit flies as they yell

Searching for lies in the truth that I tell

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

 

And then the bell rings, and I’m greeted by my bed

And my clothes, and I feel a pounding growing in my head

And I ponder what I did to ever deserve this

As I’m handed a platter of foreign food that is worthless

For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

 

And then the bell rings, and the cycle restarts

An endless eternity, run by soulless hearts

And as the torture continues, ribs appearing on my skin

I lie listless on the dirt, hearing the call of the pelican

To me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

And in my spare time, I can only dwell

On my beloved daughters, and the son I loved so well

Wondering if my wild abandonment _for_ them is forgiven

And I wonder if that action will ever grant them

The courage to _stay there_ , while I waste away here to be finally free.

 

But as I remember them, the bell drowns out my thought

Invading, overwhelming, my barriers all for naught

And the bell rings, and it rings, and it forever rings

And it rings and it rings and it rings and it rings

AND IT RINGS - so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

I hear the barking of my thoughts get louder, a nighttime gale

Whistling through my ears as I shriek under the hail

Of the thousand whips that crack with sharp terror

And the chime on my wrist that tolls, signaling doom for the wearer

A mark, they said, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

And I crack, I break, I cannot stand it, I SCREAM

And they push me back, slowly rip apart my seams

So that all that is left of me is a pile of rags, and that _damned bell_

And they kick me back, relentless ringing in my ears, to my cell

All this, they said, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

 

I eternally enter the glowing doors

Where either death or destruction moors

In the great river that has washed me clean of all emotion

A hollow husk, all feeling sucked away, floating out on the ocean

All except a sliver of hope...

 

So that perhaps…

 

So that perhaps…

 

I may be finally, _finally_ free…

 

Free to live

Free to die

Free to rest

Free to fight

 

Fight my way out of this hell

Fight my way out of this prison cell

Fight my way out so that I can rip off this bell

Fight my way out so that I may again see those I love well

 

Please…

 

I.

 

Need.

 

To.

 

 

_E̶̜͈̭̠̯̪̜͇͎̗͈̦̟̓̏̂̂̉̓̈̓s̶͎̣̪̼̮̗̪̩̺̙̰̻̥̔͋̍͜͝c̷͚̣̘͕̤͎͚̝̓͜a̸̭̤͔͎̞̮͕̹̹͐̽͋̉̓̽̔͐͗͆̃̕p̶̝̰̪͙̈͜͠ȩ̵̘͔̜̦͖̤̰̘̜̈̈́̀̀̃̅̈́̉͋͋͋̃̈́̒͜_

  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I, uh, hoped you enjoyed? Or are sad? Or are moved? I honestly don't know.
> 
> Uh...I'm going to stop talking now... *hesitantly walks off soapbox while crickets play in the background*


End file.
